Joint behaviour of climate extremes across India: Past and future

The occurrence of hydrological extremes in the Amazon region and the associated sediment loss during rainfall events are key features in the global climate system. Climate extremes alter the sediment and carbon balance but the ecological consequences of such changes are poorly understood in this region. With the aim of examining the interactions between precipitation and landscape-scale controls of sediment export from the Amazon basin, we developed a parsimonious hydro-climatological model on a multi-year series (1997–2014) of sediment discharge data taken at the outlet of Óbidos (Brazil) watershed (the narrowest and swiftest part of the Amazon River). The calibrated model (correlation coefficient equal to 0.84) captured the sediment load variability of an independent dataset from a different watershed (the Magdalena River basin), and performed better than three alternative approaches. Our model captured the interdecadal variability and the long-term patterns of sediment export. In our reconstruction of yearly sediment discharge over 1859–2014, we observed that landscape erosion changes are mostly induced by single storm events, and result from coupled effects of droughts and storms over long time scales. By quantifying temporal variations in the sediment produced by weathering, this analysis enables a new understanding of the linkage between climate forcing and river response, which drives sediment dynamics in the Amazon basin.

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The Role of Extension and Advisory Services in Strengthening Farmers’ Innovation Networks to Adapt to Climate Extremes

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13041941 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 1941

Author(s):

Md Kamruzzaman ◽

Katherine Anne Daniell ◽

Ataharul Chowdhury ◽

Steven Crimp

Keyword(s):

Information Access ◽

Significant Risk ◽

Climate Extremes ◽

Rice Cultivation ◽

Innovation Networks ◽

Flash Flooding ◽

Research Organizations ◽

Local Input ◽

Local Weather

There is anecdotal evidence of the effectiveness of Extension and Advisory Service (EAS) agencies for strengthening innovation networks to adapt to extreme events that impact agricultural production and productivity. In Bangladesh, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) is responsible for ensuring sustainable rice farming, which is damaged by flash flooding every year. This study investigates how EAS can strengthen farmers’ innovation networks by examining DAE’s efforts to adapt rice cultivation to flash flooding. Using surveys and interviews from farmers affiliated with DAE (DAE-farmers) and farmers independent of DAE (non-DAE farmers), the effectiveness of innovation networks was examined. One of the key findings of this paper is that DAE’s efforts to strengthen the innovation networks of farmers to adapt rice cultivation to flash flooding focused on the facilitation of the agronomic network development. The organization missed the opportunity to enable the harvesting networks’ efficacy. As the harvesting activities are highly exposed to flash flooding, the absence of adequate support from the DAE and timely updates of local weather and flash flooding information indicates that farmers are still at significant risk. This study also shows the value of including both formal (e.g., EAS agencies, research organizations) and informal actors (e.g., relatives, local input dealers) in the innovation network as a way of ensuring diversity of information access.

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Vegetation Change and Its Response to Climate Extremes in the Arid Region of Northwest China

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13071230 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (7) ◽

pp. 1230

Author(s):

Simeng Wang ◽

Qihang Liu ◽

Chang Huang

Keyword(s):

Arid Region ◽

Vegetation Change ◽

Vegetation Index ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Time Lag ◽

Climate Extremes ◽

Northwest China ◽

Precipitation Extremes ◽

Temperature Extremes ◽

Increasing Trend

Changes in climate extremes have a profound impact on vegetation growth. In this study, we employed the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and a recently published climate extremes dataset (HadEX3) to study the temporal and spatial evolution of vegetation cover, and its responses to climate extremes in the arid region of northwest China (ARNC). Mann-Kendall test, Anomaly analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, Time lag cross-correlation method, and Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator logistic regression (Lasso) were conducted to quantitatively analyze the response characteristics between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and climate extremes from 2000 to 2018. The results showed that: (1) The vegetation in the ARNC had a fluctuating upward trend, with vegetation significantly increasing in Xinjiang Tianshan, Altai Mountain, and Tarim Basin, and decreasing in the central inland desert. (2) Temperature extremes showed an increasing trend, with extremely high-temperature events increasing and extremely low-temperature events decreasing. Precipitation extremes events also exhibited a slightly increasing trend. (3) NDVI was overall positively correlated with the climate extremes indices (CEIs), although both positive and negative correlations spatially coexisted. (4) The responses of NDVI and climate extremes showed time lag effects and spatial differences in the growing period. (5) Precipitation extremes were closely related to NDVI than temperature extremes according to Lasso modeling results. This study provides a reference for understanding vegetation variations and their response to climate extremes in arid regions.

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Impacts of climate extremes on ecosystem metrics in southwest China

The Science of The Total Environment ◽

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.145979 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 145979

Author(s):

Hui Shao ◽

Yuandong Zhang ◽

Fengxue Gu ◽

Chunming Shi ◽

Ning Miao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Southwest China ◽

Climate Extremes

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Challenges in Applied Human Biometeorology

Atmosphere ◽

10.3390/atmos12030296 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 296

Author(s):

Andreas Matzarakis ◽

Sorin Cheval ◽

Tzu-Ping Lin ◽

Oded Potchter

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Extremes ◽

Human Biometeorology ◽

Global Concern ◽

Impacts Of Climate Change

Facing the impacts of climate change and urbanization, adaptation and resilience to climate extremes have become important issues of global concern. [...]

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